The relationship between school disciplinary resolutions with school climate and attitudes toward school

Abstract

Studies suggest that out-of-school suspensions (OSS) are negatively associated with student perceptions of school climate and attitudes toward school. However, this relationship has not been considered in the case of disciplinary approaches such as restorative practices (RP) and in-school suspensions (ISS). Using a sample of 30,799 secondary school students from a large urban school district, student-level survey data were matched with discipline records to investigate whether the type of disciplinary resolution received was related to student perceptions of disciplinary structure, supportive relationships, school bonding, disengagement, and safety. The findings of the current study suggest that students who received suspensions generally had worse perceptions of school climate and more negative attitudes toward school than their peers without a record of discipline incidents.

Keywords:

• Attitudes toward school
• disciplinary resolutions
• restorative practices
• school climate
• suspensions

Notes

1 These practices are also referred to as restorative justice (RJ) and restorative interventions (RI) in other manuscripts.

2 See https://nij.gov/funding/awards/pages/award-detail.aspx?award=2014-CK-BX-0025, https://www.morningsidecenter.org/news/morningside-center-selected-i3-award-advance-equity-schools.

3 We use the term disciplinary resolution vs. disciplinary sanction since RP is not considered a form of punishment.